Five endangered sites worth saving

By Katia Hetter, CNN

Updated 4:08 PM ET, Thu April 17, 2014

Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Minority Villages of Guizhou, China – The Global Heritage Fund's first annual list of endangered sites in the developing world features an eclectic collection of sites around the world. The amazing diversity of China's ethnic minority population is highlighted in the first site: The Minority Villages of Guizhou, China. The population of Guizhou is about one-third ethnic minorities, including the Dong and Miao peoples, and many still stick to the old ways of building their wooden stilt homes.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Minority Villages of Guizhou, China – The Dong people live in Dali Village, one of the Minority Villages of Guizhou, China. Although thousand-year-old architecture, landscapes and traditions still exist in the villages, modernization is slowly driving out the ancient ways.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Ciudad Perdido, Colombia – These old stone stairs are part of the Ciudad Perdida (the Lost City) in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve. The Tayrona Indians built some 200 structures throughout the Lost City between about the third and 17th centuries. The structures were discovered in the 1970s.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Ciudad Perdido, Colombia – Colombia's Ciudad Perdido appears to be the largest of the Tayrona sites in the Sierra Nevada, and the center of the people's political power. The 200 structures of Ciudad Perdido include stone paths, plazas, canals, storehouses and the central terraces (shown here).

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

El Mirador, Guatemala – Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala, recognized by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve, is home to the largest and earliest pre-classic Maya archaeological sites in Mesoamerica. That includes El Mirador, where La Danta, one of the largest pyramids in the world, is located. La Danta is shown here in an aerial view.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

El Mirador, Guatemala – The Popol Vuh stucco sculpture at El Mirador in Guatemala, shown here, is one of the earliest depictions of the Maya creation story, called the Popol Vuh.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Carpathian Villages, Romania – Authentic medieval architecture dating back to the 13th century can be found in Romania's Carpathian Villages of Transylvania in the Transylvanian Alps. The town of Hosman is shown here.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Carpathian Villages, Romania – Uncontrolled modern development is the greatest threat to the nearly 200 communities that live in the villages of the Transylvanian Alps in Romania.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – Built at least 10,000 years ago, Gobekli Tepe in Turkey is thought to have been a ceremonial center where communities gathered for rituals. That's because the site, which is only 5% excavated, has no residential structures.

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Five endangered world heritage sites10 photos

Göbekli Tepe, Turkey – The T-shaped pillars at Gîbekli Tepe, Turkey, each weigh several tons. They were placed in circles, and a pair of pillars towered over all of them in the center.

Some of these wonders are part of the Global Heritage Fund's first annual list of five endangered cultural sites, issued to mark the day and draw attention to the fund's work. The day was first adopted as a concept in 1983 to draw attention to the cultural heritage of communities around the world.

Sites include a natural Guatemalan wonderland larger than Yellowstone National Park, Colombia's Lost City and medieval villages in the Transylvanian Alps.

The fund, which works to protect significant and endangered cultural heritage sites in the developing world, named sites they're working to save from the impact of uncontrolled modern development, tourism and looting.

"Many cultural sites are endangered, especially those in the developing world (regions where per capita income is less than $2 per day), and they languish without any international attention," wrote Vince Michael, the fund's executive director, via e-mail. "It's our hope that World Heritage Day and our list will inspire community involvement in preserving the legacy of these sites."

"Ciudad Perdida (in Colombia) was once a thriving center of political, social and economic power, and Göbekli Tepe (in Turkey) is the oldest man-made place of worship discovered to date. As awareness of these two sites has grown, threats such as unregulated tourism and looting could harm the sites," Michael wrote.

The Minority Villages of Guizhou (in China) and the Carpathian Villages (in Romania) were included because of their important cultural heritage and traditional practices, "which are being eroded by modern development and industrialization," Michael said.

"Finally, we included Mirador, Guatemala, because it is facing critical environmental threats -- ranching and logging have destroyed 70 percent of its forests in the last decade."